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dawson memorial baptist church

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let’s face it, if we are honest we would admit that ministries can create the biggest of silos. if there is ever an event we need to work to get the whole church staff on board with, it is vbs. i have always been so blessed to work with staffs that go all in for vbs. at dawson we call vbs kidlife, and we have had so much fun promoting #kidlife16 as a staff.

in this post i will share some of the media images we are using to promote kidlife. the second blog post will share some of the videos our ministry staff participated in so bravely.

what makes our kidlife promotion campaign so great is there is a team of amazing people behind each step of it. because we all put our heads together and brainstormed, we are all in for this year’s kidlife. our communications team has been working non-stop and i must say i believe they have hit it out of the park.

our kidlife 2016 theme is God’s game plan – believe • obey • follow. we are excited to teach these truths with the backdrop of the summer olympics. so what better way to promote the summer games than to assign staff members olympic sports and get them to pose for pictures. they were such great sports. we have used these pictures in social media, bulletin inserts, posters around the church, displayed them on tv screens, and more. honestly i just can’t get enough of them. our hope is that the message of kidlife would be more far-reaching using all the different amazing people that serve on staff. it was a simple addition we made this year and the hype for kidlife had greatly increased.

below are some the pictures we used. they make me smile everytime. comment and let me know which one is your favorite and feel free to share how you creatively promote your vbs. summer is right around the corner.

KidLife_Poster1 KidLifePoster2

 

sheetthis year at vine family worship we are working through our dawson kids blueprint model. each family worship night takes a deeper, hands-on, and family focused look at one of the points in our blueprint theme for the year. “the fall” was the topic of our second vine family worship, so we created a blackout family worship that would take a look at the seriousness of sin, but also how the light of Jesus Christ breaks though the darkness. (all families were encouraged to dress in all black.)

we always begin each family worship with an early arrival activity. we want to engage families as soon as they are seated at their tables. here is early arrival activity sheet that was placed on each table that night:
blackoutearly arrival

 

 

when it was time to begin, we led the families through the following Bible-centered, interactive experience.

• as a family read romans 5:12, “therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned”

• family activity – the person with the next closest 12186377_1177985725549264_471491982949503532_obirthday stood while the kids wrapped them in crepe paper and the adults wrapped them in cling wrap. this was so much fun to watch. some tables had kids getting wrapped and others had parents getting wrapped.

• family discussion question – “how is this cling wrap and crepe paper like sin?”

• we then read aloud john 8:34, “very truly i tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” then we had families discuss this question: “what does it mean to be a slave?”

• to further stress the point of how sin binds us, we played a game. each table was given an object to pass quickly around the table. the object was to be passed as quickly as possible around the table with everyone touching it. yes, even the person that was wrapped in “sin” had to try to participate. we then had families discuss this question “how does being a slave to sin affect those around you?”

• next the families read 1 john 1:8 “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” we asked “what if the person wrapped up at their table just pretended that it never happened and they were not wrapped in cling wrap and crepe paper?” “how is this like when we claim to have no sin?” we are only fooling ourselves.

• families then read 1 john 1:9 “ if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” finally the person who had been bound in sin for most of the night was unwrapped by those at their table. 🙂

• we ended this experience time by singing “nothing but the blood.” we challenged the families to really think about each word they sang and to savor the fact that only the blood of Jesus cleanses us from our sin.

• next asked ask each family member to take off their labels of sin they were wearing (from the early arrival activity) and trade them for one of 10012763_1177987358882434_3748371340862754809_othe candles on their table. (each table had a candle for each person.) as they held their candles the Gospel of Jesus Christ was presented and we shared with children that Jesus breaks through the darkness and brings life. we no longer need to be slaves to sin and be trapped in darkness, we have a Savior and His name is Jesus. at the end of this time we had each person turn on their candle (we did battery candles) and we closed the night in several songs by candlelight. we sang “Christ is risen”, “i saw the light”, and at the end, with only voices and candles in the darkness, sang “this little light of mine.”

i say it often and will say it again… family worship is one of my favorite parts in ministry.

10672280_1499499846959104_2651752240705181044_napples and oranges are not the same. that’s what i kept trying to say when we were working on a way to bring two ministries together on one night. (two ministries that had always been on separate nights at my previous church) maybe you can never make apples and oranges be the same, but it can be quite exciting when you allow them to collide. that is what my friend and co-worker, john woods – music and worship pastor, and i did when we brought dawson kids midweek discipleship and children’s choirs together for a whole new look at wednesday nights.

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 6.51.38 PMteamwork, creative dreaming, collaboration, and compromise were all part of our dawson collide process. john’s heart is for children to be life long worshippers of Christ. mine is for children to become authentic disciples through God’s Word. i am also burdened to create a place where those that may never enter through the “white columns” of a sanctuary on sunday morning can have a place to get plugged into our family of faith. oh what joy it brings me when i have to make it a point to learn the names of children because there are new faces at collide each week.  it is amazing what happens when you dare to dream and see ministry lived out in a new way.

IMG_0107-1024x768has then process been perfect? absolutely not, but through the struggles i believe we have become even more intent on making sure this ministry hits the mark. we tweak and work on collide weekly to make sure we are doing all we can to help our collide investors (leaders), kids, and parents experience Jesus and become lifelong worshippers and authentic disciples of Jesus Christ.

as we are still seeking to understand all the many ways God would want us to use collide, i thought i would share some of the basics below. i would also love to hear what you have done to bring two ministries together. comment below with you thoughts and ideas.

 

collide themes

fall 2014 – grace, God’s love collides with forgiveness to create grace.

spring 2015 – worshipSpirit and Truth collide to create worship.

 

collide elements

here’s a brief description of the collide elements that all grades will participle in collide.

collide blue collide orange collide green

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 7.23.29 PMopening rally: think kidlife worship rally colliding with wednesday night church.  we will begin the rally right at 5:45 in the lore lobby of the FRC.  we will have worship music, high energy activities, creative prayer time, a missions moment, exciting time in God’s Word and more. all kinds of elements will collide 

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 7.22.31 PMcollide choir: after the opening rally, it’s time to head to collide choir. here colliders will sing the very best music, no matter the style. with the goal of nurturing well-rounded worshippers, able to worship through any style or genre, collide choir is the place where a soundtrack for life begins. 

collide missions: God’s Word commands us to go and make disciples of all nations.  in this track children will collide with what missions is, learn about missionaries, discover how they can be involved in missions at their age, and develop a desire to sure the Good News of Jesus through hands-on activities.

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 7.21.59 PMart studio: when things collide, there’s usually a mess. and each week the art studio will be full of students learning through hands-on activities. sculpture? sure! oil paints? of course! pottery? why not! god made us to be creative, so let’s get busy!

music lab: there more to worshipping through music than just singing. in music lab, colliders might find themselves playing drums, writing a song, planning a worship service, or playing instruments used in worship. anything could happen in music lab

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 7.22.46 PMrec lab: kids can learn in a creative way when Bible truths collide with movement.  this track will include games with a purpose and will end with a time of debriefing on image1-1024x768how to apply what they learned in the game to their everyday life. 

collide discipleship: here kids will collide with the powerful word of God.  kids will dig in and learn about the Bible, how to use the Bible, how to study God’s Word, how to apply God’s Word to their daily lives and much more.

 

collide schedule 

collide blue collide orange collide green

5:45p.m. – 6:05p.m. – collide opening rally 
6:05p.m. – 6:40p.m. – collide choir
6:40p.m. – 7:15p.m. – collide tracks

** all children will participate in each of the elements of collide.  each grade will spend three weeks in each of the five tracks offered: music lab, missions, art, recreation, and discipleship.

Screen Shot 2014-07-21 at 1.08.52 PM

collide dress-up nights

collide will have dress up nights this fall the first wednesday of september, october, november and december.

IMG_0095-1024x768

collide dress-up night schedule

september 3 – collide hat night

october 1 – collide superhero night

november 5 – collide jersey night

december 3 – collide Christmas night

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